My new fairing fasteners, nothing but a hand job

[JAM]

I would guess this idea sprang forth when I scratched the paint holding or inserting a driver to take the fairing off. I liked the DZUS method, but wanted not to modify the fairing to such an extent. So the lathe, mill, and I decided to manufacture a lightweight bolt that had leverage but could be minimized. I had some anodized cap head screws, some ABS, and McMaster on the line. The aluminum rods are not anodized, but will be. The are held into place with stainless split pin. The lever rod swings out to crank it like a handle, fully for leverage, and finally it snaps into a closed position. The contact surface has been filleted to compensate for the inset holes in the various fairing pieces. I cranked down on all of them to a point, and only had one problem where the pin wasn't centered.

The next idea was to to replace the shouldered bolts, those three on either side. What I didn't like was that once the bolt was released that if the others were undone, that the fairing would drop. What I did was to spin a 6061 alu. .375 rod, tapped the back side, spun a slot near the other end, and chamfer the outside end. I then installed a bolt on the backside of the bracket that the screw would normally go into. I them installed the six aluminum rods with some 242 Loctite. The clear acrylic bobbins are two piece assemblies, three SS springs, and three 4/40 SS screws to captivate the assembly. This assembly slides over the rod. For fun I bought some titanium washers and machined an offset hole, it looks like a keyhole and acts like a lock. The bobbin itself has a counterbore, which captures the titanium washer. Assembly of the bobbin is simple, slide it on, push and slide the keyed washer until slips into the slot and release. The washer wont' go anywhere, the springs are internal, the screws can't unscrew, and the fairing is under a slight amount of spring pressure. It is very fast to take off, press, slide the keyed washer, and slide the assembly off. Sometimes I would not thread the original bolts in correctly, now the rods hold the fairing up and there is no more screwing around.

I also put two metal inserts in the bottom of the right(?) fairing so I don't have to worry about those crap plastic fasteners. The look is rather techie, and could be a love it or leave it. But for me, form follows function, and having them means a nicer time working on the cycle. I am working on the four bolts for the shroud at the bottom near the exhaust manifold. The prototypes are fine, just not there yet.

[wera803]

Wow, and I thought I went through trouble when I bought 1/4 turn fasteners from McMaster-Carr.

http://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/116/gfx/large/93755ac1l.gif

Edited June 10, 2010 by wera803

[JAM]

Wow, and I thought I went through trouble when I bought 1/4 turn fasteners from McMaster-Carr.

http://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/116/gfx/large/93755ac1l.gif

I think the DZUZ or something like that were an inspiration, but I wanted something nicer and reversible.

Edited June 10, 2010 by JAM

[Jmmymc750]

Wow, and I thought I went through trouble when I bought 1/4 turn fasteners from McMaster-Carr.

http://www.mcmaster....e/93755ac1l.gif

Those look like the fasteners on my old VFR (1990)!

[JAM]

Wow, and I thought I went through trouble when I bought 1/4 turn fasteners from McMaster-Carr.

http://www.mcmaster....e/93755ac1l.gif

Those look like the fasteners on my old VFR (1990)!

Which one, and how, that would be funny, me 20 years late. Or is that normal?

[checksix]

Nice workmanship and clever idea. They do look a bit bulky though. Is there such a thing as blue delrin? That would be pretty neat.

[vfrcapn]

Looks like a cool idea. I'd open the larger pictures up but they're 3MB ea, can you downsize them a little?

[wera803]

Wow, and I thought I went through trouble when I bought 1/4 turn fasteners from McMaster-Carr.

http://www.mcmaster....e/93755ac1l.gif

I think the DZUZ or something like that were an inspiration, but I wanted something nicer and reversible.

DZUS were my inspiration as well, but I didn't like the cost or the fact that anyone could walk up, grab the "D" ring and undo the fastener. The screw head gave a little more security. They are completely reversible as well. The clips just slide over the existing hole on the underside. No drilling, no riviting, no nothing.

[VFR Capt.Bob]

Wow, and I thought I went through trouble when I bought 1/4 turn fasteners from McMaster-Carr.

http://www.mcmaster....e/93755ac1l.gif

I think the DZUZ or something like that were an inspiration, but I wanted something nicer and reversible.

DZUS were my inspiration as well, but I didn't like the cost or the fact that anyone could walk up, grab the "D" ring and undo the fastener. The screw head gave a little more security. They are completely reversible as well. The clips just slide over the existing hole on the underside. No drilling, no riviting, no nothing.

Need a link to where I can buy these if you have it. The one you posted just shows a single fastener. I need to do this to my 5th gen. My 86 vfr had these type of fasteners. Way better for maint.

[JAM]

Nice workmanship and clever idea. They do look a bit bulky though. Is there such a thing as blue delrin? That would be pretty neat.

They are taller that I would like. They are prototypes, so the even the springs had to be cut and ground. They have to protrude a bit in order to push and release the ti washer. I guess what I like most about the clear bobbins is that that they are unlike other fasteners, most people would not know how to take them off. The black ones are high also, but taking in account the cap screw height, lever thickness, and the need to keep some material around the pin, I kept them at that height for those reasons. I used ABS because they could be painted if needed. I would advise against delrin, and yes I have seen royal blue delrin. A lot of nylons are not suited for the outside. They swell and degrade under UV conditions. The overall look is a bit unusual, but as a whole they don't stand out looking at the bike as a whole. Thanks for your ideas.

[JAM]

Looks like a cool idea. I'd open the larger pictures up but they're 3MB ea, can you downsize them a little?

I kept them big so you could see them up close and criticize :). I just dumped them, if it becomes a problem for many I will downsize.

Edited June 12, 2010 by JAM

[wera803]

Need a link to where I can buy these if you have it. The one you posted just shows a single fastener. I need to do this to my 5th gen. My 86 vfr had these type of fasteners. Way better for maint.

http://www.mcmaster....steners/=7hsjcd

Page 3255 (for some reason the link keeps coming up to page 3253). I don't remember the length off the top of my head that I got though. It was several years ago. You also need the clip-on nuts under them. They come with retainers, but I got some thin plastic washers too so they don't scratch up the paint. I'm sure those are on the site somewhere too, although I might have got those at Lowe's.

All said and done, I think it was less than $20. I did the 3 on each side, 2 on the bottom that connects both sides together, and the 4 on top that connects the dash to the sides (1 of those is a real pain though - too thick of plastic build up). So maybe I spent more than $20 since that comes up to 12 and the packages come in 10's. I have extras though now.

Edited June 12, 2010 by wera803

[Serenity_VFR]

For me, the perfect fastener system was used in the Gen1 VFR. Why Honda went away from simple and easy fairing fasteners and towards the horrible abortions of engineering that they use now is beyond me.